Installation for producing and packing tubes

ABSTRACT

A plant for manufacturing and packaging tubes feeds the tubes via a conveyor belt to a packaging station, where they are packaged to form larger units. The foil strip is a dual or multiple-strip, cut by at least one partitioning blade into individual webs respectively welded in parallel planes to form endless tubes and cut by transverse cutters. The tubular bodies are assembled into a larger transfer group and jointly transferred to a turn table including a corresponding number of mandrels. The turn table conveys them jointly and stepwise to stations for fitting the shoulder portion with a threaded neck and the closure cap. The finished tubes are deposited on a discharge belt and fed to control regions for checking. Flawless tubes are received by the discharge belt and fed continuously to a tray.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

Applicant claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119 of German Application No.102 37 839.8 filed on Aug. 19, 2002. Applicant also claims priorityunder 35 U.S.C. §365 of PCT/EP2003/008481 filed on Jul. 31, 2003. Theinternational application under PCT article 21 (2) was not published inEnglish.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates to a plant for manufacturing and packaging tubesconsisting of a tubular body consisting of at least one plastic foiland, connected at one end thereof a shoulder portion with a threadedneck, fitted with a closure cap, the tubes being fed via a conveyor beltto a packaging station, where they are packaged to form larger units.

2. Description of the Related Art

This process is normally performed in two stages. In a first steptubular bodies are manufactured from a laminated foil or from anextruded hose, which are fitted with a shoulder portion comprising athreaded neck and a closure cap. In this case, prior to screwing on theclosure means, an originality membrane may be applied to, usually weldedonto the withdrawal aperture of the threaded neck. In a second step thetubes manufactured in this manner are then fed, often by means of aconveyor belt, to a packaging machine, where they are packaged to formlarger units, and are optionally fed, after further transportationand/or storage, to a filing operation for filling the tubes with aproduct. After filling, the tubes are closed or sealed at the fillingoutlet in order to be then once again packaged into larger units foronward transport.

The manufacture and filling of the tubes is performed at a rate of about80 to 200 tubes/minute, in which context packaging into larger units, inparticular in low-wage countries, is performed manually, in which case,at the time of packaging the still empty tubes, visual quality controlis performed simultaneously. In particular in countries with high pricestructures packaging of the still empty tubes, or, as the case may be,even the filled tubes, is done automatically by means of complicatedtransfer systems—usually into boxes. In this case inspection and/orquality control is performed automatically, which prevents manufacturedtubes with defects to be packaged or fed to a filing plant.

During the filling operation the empty tubes are removed from therespective packaging either manually or by gripper means, even multiplegrippers and are conveyed to the charging station of a fining machine.From the charging station the tubes normally reach a plurality ofstations, e.g. by means of revolving tube holding devices, in which casea filling material is passed through the open end in one station or,optionally, even further stations, each filled tube being closed, e.g.welded, at the filling outlet, causing the filled product to be sealedhermetically in the tube. The filled and sealed tubes are subsequentlyremoved manually or automatically from the filling machine and areoptionally passed on to an end consumer in repackaged forum

This type of manufacture and packaging provides a certain flexibility atthe filling site, but suffers from a number of drawbacks, which are tobe seen, on the one hand, in the complicated logistics and transfertechnology, in the risk of the packaged, empty tubes collecting dust anddirt, inter alia by frequent contact with the transfer devices, the veryoften required disposal of the packaging containers used, mainlycardboard boxes, and the required storage, necessitating dead capital onthe one hand, and causing increased transport costs on the other.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is the object of the invention to provide, on the one hand, plants,which permit, for example, the manufacture of 450-500 tubes/minutehaving tube diameters e.g. of preferably 22 to 40 mm, or larger orsmaller and which permit the arrangement of this quantity ofmanufactured tubes in reusable, transportable packaging means—even forfilling—without having to be repackaged.

This object is attained by a plant for manufacturing and packaging tubesformed of a tubular body including at least one plastic foil and,connected at one end thereof, a shoulder portion with a threaded neck,fitted with a closure cap. The tubes are fed via a conveyor belt to apackaging station, where they are packaged to form larger units. Thefoil strip is a dual or multiple-strip, cut by one or a plurality ofpartitioning knives into individual webs, which are in each case weldedin parallel planes to form endless tubes and which are cut to thedesired tube length by transverse cutters. The tubular bodiesmanufactured parallel to one another are then assembled into a largertransfer group and are jointly transferred to a turn table comprising acorresponding number of mandrels, the turn table conveying them jointlyand stepwise to stations for fitting the shoulder portion with athreaded neck and the closure cap, whereupon the finished tubes aredeposited on a discharge belt, formed of at least two toothed beltssituated parallel next to one another and comprising transport prisms,the partitioning of which corresponds to that of the mandrels on theturn table, and being fed to control regions for examining the tubes andthe flawless tubes being received by the discharge belt by means ofrotatable suction prisms corresponding to the spacing of the transportprisms and being fed continuously to a tray.

Advantageous embodiments are discussed below.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention is elucidated in detail in what follows by way of anembodiment of a plant for manufacturing and packaging tubes withreference to the figures. There is shown in:

FIG. 1 a plant in longitudinal elevation;

FIG. 2 the plant according to FIG. 1 viewed from the top;

FIG. 3 the plant according to FIG. 1 in cross-section with adouble-roll;

FIG. 4 a schematic representation of a tube collecting device;

FIG. 5 a discharge belt made of two co-acting toothed belts;

FIG. 6 a-e the transfer of an individual tube;

FIG. 7 tube trays.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1 shows the longitudinal side of a plant according to the inventionviewed from the side. On its left end face 1 a double roll 3 (see alsoFIGS. 2 and 3) of a foil strip 4 is arranged on an axis 2 in arotatable—optionally also driven—manner. As a result of this front endarrangement space is saved in the plant in and on its longitudinal side.A partitioning knife 5 cuts the double-web 3 of the foil strip 4 intotwo individual webs 6 a and 6 b. Each individual web 6 a, 6 b isdeflected by a deflecting rod 7 a, 7 b, optionally with guiding rolls,by 90° on the longitudinal side of the plant. The deflection isperformed such that the individual webs 6 a, 6 b—as shown in FIG. 1—areguided onwards in two superimposed planes. Each individual web 6 a, 6 bis associated with a moulding bell 8, a welding head 9 as well aspressing and cooling devices 10, by means of which the deformation intoa tubular body 11 (endless tubes 11 a, 11 b) is performed, in whichcontext the provision here of a longitudinal overlap seam, e.g. bywelding, may be performed in this case as well.

The foil strip 4 may already comprise print or character images (notshown) and may also be designed as a triple or multiple strip, in whichcase further partitioning knives 5 and further planes for manufacturingthe respectively required number of endless tubes would have to beprovided.

According to the desired length of the tubular bodies 11 or of a printedimage the endless tubes 11 a, 11 b are separated by way of transversecutters 12 a, 12 b, having e.g. a size control, into tube body sections13 a, 13 b having the respectively desired length A transfer device 14including suction prisms 15, which may be bent around by 45°, takes overtwo tube body sections 13 a, 13 b each in a cyclical operation untilaltogether six tube body sections 13 a; 13 b are assembled to form a“transfer group”.

The transfer device 14 then guides the “transfer group” of six tube bodysections 13 a, 13 b into a transfer position 16, turned by 90°, wherethey are taken over by a horizontally moving vacuum slide-on holdingdevice 17, i.e. at any one time six tube body sections 13 a, 13 b aretransferred in this process. The transfer device 14 consists of twosingle transfer belts 18 a and 18 b operating independently from oneanother, each comprising six suction prisms 15 a, 15 b. These singletransfer belts 18 are so controlled and driven that a pulse wisereceiving of two tube body sections 13 a, 13 b at a time, in the presentcase in a cycle of 450/2=225/minute and likewise a pulse-wise releasing,in the present case in a cycle of 450/6=75/minute is ensured and/orpossible in the case of six tube body sections 13 a, 13 b at a time.These two systems operate at a 180° phase shift alternating with eachoperating side.

Each slide-on holding device 17 performs a linear up-and-down movement,in order e.g. to move the six tube body sections 13 a, 13 b from thetake-over position 16 of the transfer device 14 into a slide-on position16′ congruent (coaxial) in relation to mandrels 19 of a turn table 20.In this context the six tube body sections 13 a, 13 b each aresimultaneously and jointly pushed onto the mandrels 19 by means notshown, e.g. slide-on tappets.

The turn table 20 is so designed as to convey six mandrels 19 at a timein one step or cycle one after the other, to, for example, eightstations A-H (see FIG. 1). The turn table 20 causes the mandrels 19 tobe fed in one step, one after the other, to the individual stations A-Hcomprising devices for assembling, in the present case six, completetubes. At the stations A-H all respective mandrels 19 are provided withthe required components or are acted upon by external tools.

In the embodiment shown, at station A six shoulder portions 21 with athreaded neck are simultaneously fitted onto the free end of themandrels 19, at station B six tube body sections 13 a, 13 b are slidover the shoulder portions 21 onto the mandrels 19 by the vacuum createdby the slide-on holding device 17, i.e. positioned in relation toanother, in the station C the tube shoulders 21 are pre-heated, which inposition D are welded onto the tube body sections 13 a, 13 b by way ofHF-induction heating, while in station E membranes (not shown) forsafeguarding content originality are stamped onto the discharge outletin the shoulder portions 21, in which context this station E may, forexample, also be used for cooling the welded shoulder portions 21, whilein station F the tube closure caps 22 may be screwed on, which may thenbe readjusted in station G, e.g. to a precise torque of 35 Ncm,whereafter finally in station H the now complete tubes 23 are withdrawnor removed from the mandrels 19 of the turn table 20, in order e.g. tobe placed onto continuously-operating discharge belt 24.

The discharge belt 24 shown in FIG. 5 consists of two toothed belts 25 aand 25 b, toothed on the inside, arranged parallel next to one anotherand equipped with transport prisms 26. The transport prisms 26 consistof two partial prisms 26 a, 26 b, jointly fixed on the toothed belts 25a, 25 b, serving as transport belts. Each of the two toothed belts 25 a,25 b is tensioned and guided through a toothed driving pulley 27 a or 27b and a freely mounted deflection pulley (not shown). In this case thedriving pulleys 27 a and 27 b are arranged on a joint drive shaft 28 andby means of an adjusting device 29 are arranged on the drive shaft 28 ina manner to be adjustable in opposite directions in respect of theirrelative angle or phase position. By adjusting the angle position of thedriving pulleys a linear displacement of the two toothed belts 25 a, 25b is brought about, making it possible at the same time to optimallyadapt all transport prisms 26 in a very simple and time-saving manner tothe respective, freely-selected tube diameters. This results in thesetting of the geometrical axis of all tubes 23 to be very simple forall tube diameters and always at the same level. The arrangement of thetransport prisms 26 corresponds in the present example to the spacing ofthe mandrels 19, being 95 mm. As in the present example six mandrels 19are provided, feeding of the shoulder portions 21 and of the tubeclosure caps 22 is likewise performed six-fold, although other numbers,e.g. four or eight, are likewise possible.

On the discharge belt 24 shown in FIG. 4 the tubes 23 may, for example,pass through four different control and discharge zones, situated e.g.in the region 30 along part or all of the length of the upper portion ofthe discharge belt 24. The four control and discharge zones may, forexample, be: a first control for tubes without closure caps; a secondcontrol serving as statistical quality control; a third control forunusable reject tubes and a fourth control for good (usable) tubes.During the statistical quality control process sample tubes may bewithdrawn automatically at freely selectable time intervals. Rejecttubes or defective tubes 23′ may be ejected at the end of the dischargebelt 24.

At the end of the linear region of the discharge belt 24 a collectingdevice 31 is arranged comprising e.g. six rotating suction prisms 32 bymeans of which the good (flawless) tubes 23 may be receivedcontinuously, e.g. in trays 34.

This proposed four-way system with the selective ejection of tubes 23for different uses at different locations along the discharge belt 24makes it possible, in each case as a function of the respective qualityproperties or the type of the tubes 23—without any manualintervention—to separate the suitable tubes 23 from the unsuitable tubes23′.

The six suction prisms 32 in the region 31 (FIG. 4) are arranged in thesame spacing relationship as the pure transport prisms 26. Byindividually controlling the rotary movement of the six suction prisms32 all tubes 23 fed to the discharge belt 24 may, therefore, becollected continuously according to freely selectable and adjustablecriteria, e.g. in such a manner that only absolutely flawless tubes 23are taken.

A possibility for control presents itself in this context by way ofrecording the respective process parameters or production parameters, inrelation to a tube 23, actually prevailing when passing through thevarious work stations A to H, each tube 23 transported on the dischargebelt 24 subsequently being examined in relation to these parameters. Theresult may also be accurately assigned to each examined tube 23. As aresult, the temporary history file created for each tube 23 serves ascontrol means, all essential production parameters, e.g. in a productiondata set, being assigned to said history file and defective tubes 23′,according to set elimination criteria, being eliminated or monitored ata suitable location. When monitoring, it can be established whether e.g.the welding temperature or the pre-heating was performed at the desiredset value or whether it was insufficient. If the predetermined set valuewas not attained and defective tubes 23′ were manufactured as a resultthereof, the latter must be eliminated. A missing closure cap 22 on atube 23 may likewise be detected. Defective or incomplete tubes 23 areremoved at a defined location. The described control process ensuresthat only absolutely flawless tubes 23 are conveyed to the collectingdevice 31.

The tube transfer from the mandrels 19 of the turn table 20 to thecontinuously operating discharge belt 24, shown in FIG. 4, is performedin a deposit region 33 or a deposit station for in each case allsix—unit forming—mandrels 19 of the turn table 20. They may, e.g. bewithdrawn from the mandrels 19 by removal tongues, not shown, and, whereapplicable, be deposited in transport prisms 26 by a rotatable holdingdevice 32′. A turning motion of the holding device 32′ adapted to theadvance movement of the discharge belt 24 provides a complete, smoothtransfer, in each case all tubes 23 of one unit (in the present casesix) being off-loaded and reaching the discharge belt 24.

Selection in terms of the quality of the tubes 23 manufactured accordingto the above described criteria is only performed in the on-followingzone 30 of the discharge belt 24 (see FIG. 4).

In this on-following zone 30 only the flawless tubes 23 are collected,in each case as a unit—in the present case six tubes 23—, by means of acollecting device 31 and only after a complete unit has been obtained,i.e. in the present example six flawless tubes, are they transferredjointly and continuously into special trays 34.

The collecting device 31 comprises six stations with six rotatableholding devices 32A, 32B, 32C, 32D, 32E and 32F including suctionprisms. For the sake of simplicity, FIG. 6 shows only one holding device32A including a suction prism. All holding devices 32 including suctionprisms are arranged parallel and above the discharge belt 24. In therespective transfer or take-over position, in relation to the dischargebelt 24, each holding device 32 comprises a suction prism with a cavity,directed upwardly in the respective locking or neutral position (seeFIG. 6 a). If a tube 23, recognised to be usable, approaches the station32A at rectilinear velocity V1 on the collecting belt 24 in thetransport prism 26A, the suction prism of the holding device 32A turnsby the peripheral speed U1 and the tube 23, as a result of the suctionforce applied by the bores 35, is seized by means of the suction prismof the holding device 32A. In orders to ensure a perfect take-over ofthe tube 23, the peripheral velocity U1 is adapted as closely aspossible to the rectilinear velocity V1 or is selected to equal thelatter. The bores 35 in the holding device 32, terminating in itscavity, are connected to a suction source, not shown, whereby the tube23 is removed from the transport prism 26A.

In the momentary state shown in FIG. 4 as an embodiment, the nextfollowing good=flawless tube 23 has also been withdrawn from thetransport prism 26B at station 32B by the holding device 32B.

If a tube 23′, which has been found unusable in terms of the performedselection, approaches in the transport prism 26C the next unoccupiedholding device 32C with its suction prism, the holding device 32C doesnot turn and the defective tube 23′ remains on the discharge belt 24 andis ejected or disposed of at its outlet.

If the next tube 23 arriving on the discharge belt 24 in the transportprism 26C is in order, the holding device 32C with its suction prismturns and seizes the tube 23, turning it in upward direction, so that inposition 32C a third flawless tube 23 is now present. The same procedureis followed until a fourth flawless tube 23 is obtained from thetransport prism 26A′ in the following position 32D, then a fifth onefrom 26 b″ in 32E and finally a sixth one from 26D′ in 32F, i.e. untilsix flawless tubes 23 are present in all stations 32A-32F of thecollecting device 31. The transport prisms 26E and 26F shown in anunoccupied state pass underneath the collecting device 31 without one ofthe rotatable holding devices 32 being activated. Thereafter all sixtubes 23 arranged in the stations 32A-32F are passed on jointly and,therefore, continuously, to a tray 34, e.g. transferred by a vaguelyindicated joint sliding device 36. According to the successive charge,the tray 34 is then shifted in order to receive the next unit offlawless tubes 23. This ensures that automatically only tubes 23 whichhave been graded as flawless end up in the tray 34.

The collecting device 31 may also serve to “fill in gaps” in any desiredtube transport system, e.g. a tube storage system.

The filled tray 34 is conveyed as such to any desired filling station,e.g. via conveyor belts, where the tubes 23 arranged in the tray 34 arefilled with a product. It is also possible to perform filling only whenthe tubes 23 have already been removed from the tray 34. It is obviousthat the number of operations required may be clearly reduced by theinvention and that they may also be automated, so that manual operationis not required.

1. A plant for producing and packaging tubes, each tube comprising atubular body including at least a plastic film and a shoulder portionjoined at one end with a threaded neck and an attached closure cap, saidplant comprising: (a) a packaging station; (b) a conveyor belt forsupplying tubes to the packaging station to package the tubes intolarger units; (c) at least one blade for cutting a two-ply or multi-plyfilm strip into individual webs; (d) a welding device for welding theindividual webs to form endless tubes; (e) a plurality of transversecutters for cutting the endless tubes to a desired tube length to formtubular bodies, (f) a transfer device for gathering together a number ofthe tubular bodies after being cut to the desired tube length to form alarger transfer group; (g) a turn table comprising a plurality ofstations each having a number of mandrels with a mandrel spacing, thenumber of mandrels of each station corresponding to the number of thetubular bodies in the transfer group, the tubular bodies in the transfergroup being jointly transferred to the turn table by the transferdevice; (h) the plurality of stations having assembling devices forattaching the shoulder portion of each tubular body with the threadedneck and the closure cap, the turn table conveying the tubular bodiesjointly and gradually to the stations for forming finished tubes; (i) awithdrawing device for jointly removing the finished tubes from themandrels; (j) a delivery belt comprising first and second toothed beltspositioned parallel to each other having transport prisms with atransport prism spacing between transport prisms corresponding to themandrel spacing of the mandrels on the turn table, the finished tubesbeing jointly deposited on the delivery belt by the withdrawing device;(k) a plurality of control regions having control devices for examiningthe finished tubes delivered by the delivery belt and for selectingflawless tubes and unusable tubes from the finished tubes; (l) acollection device comprising a plurality of rotatable suction prisms forpicking up the flawless tubes; and (m) a tray for receiving flawlesstubes carried on the transport prisms continuously fed by the rotatablesuction prisms.
 2. The plant according to claim 1, further comprising aroll comprising laminated film arranged at right angles to the tubularbodies to be manufactured and a deflector for respectively deflectingthe individual webs for forming the tubular bodies by 90°.
 3. The plantaccording to claim 1, wherein the individual webs may be welded oneabove the other by the welding device to form endless tubes.
 4. Theplant according to claim 1, wherein the individual webs may be weldednext to one another by the welding device to form endless tubes.
 5. Theplant according to claim 1, further comprising an ejection device fordischarging the unusable tubes from the plant.
 6. The plant according toclaim 1, further comprising an adjustment device for phase-shifting thefirst and second toothed belts in relation to one another.
 7. The plantaccording to claim 1, further comprising a plurality of trays, whereineach tray has a grid insert adapted to the diameters of the tubes. 8.The plant according to claim 1, wherein the collecting device isarranged at an end of the delivery belt and provided with a plurality ofstations.